Bruins push Canadiens to brink of elimination

Sunday

May 11, 2014 at 12:01 AMMay 11, 2014 at 11:02 AM

The Bruins' power play finally produced, and their new third line scored two goals in Game 5 on Saturday night. The B's, now up 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, can advance to the Eastern Conference Final with a win on Monday night at the Bell Centre.

Mike Loftus The Patriot Ledger

The question many people asked throughout Saturday night was “Where’s that game been all series?”

A more relevant question might now be, “Can the Bruins bring that game back – or at least, most of it – on Monday night?”

If the B’s can even come close, they stand a very good chance of eliminating the Canadiens and advancing to the Eastern Conference Final for the second straight season, and third time in four years.

Game 6 is Monday night in Montreal (7:30, NBCSN, WBZ-FM 98.5).

The Bruins put themselves in that position via Saturday’s 4-2 victory over the Habs, which gave them a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and the distinction of being the first team to win two straight.

After playing with a lead for less than 12 minutes over the first four games, the B’s went ahead at 13:20 of the first period, and stayed ahead – although the Canadiens used their power play to twice trim three-goal deficits to two.

After coming up empty on their first 10 power-play opportunities in the series, the Bruins scored on two straight power plays at the start of the second period. And although they did allow two more power-play goals (that’s six allowed in five games), the B’s killed consecutive penalties in the last 5:14 of the first period to preserve their lead and give them an opportunity to build on it.

The Bruins’ newly-configured third line of Matt Fraser, Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson, which got an overtime goal from Fraser to win Game 4 at the Bell Centre, started the scoring in Game 5. Soderberg, goal-less over 11 career post-season games (nine this season) entering Saturday night, finally broke the ice 6:40 before intermission, cranking Eriksson’s pass off the blocker of Carey Price (27 saves) from the left hash mark. Defenseman Matt Bartkowski drew a secondary assist.

The B’s didn’t have much of a chance to pad that lead, because they spent most of the remainder of the period killing penalties. No sooner had Dougie Hamilton finished serving an interference penalty, Tuukka Rask (28 stops) swatted an airborne puck over the glass with three minutes to go. Shortly after the penalty-killers took care of that, Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec bull-rushed Rask in the crease (Rask smacked him back with his blocker), and the Bruins used that power play to make it 2-0 early in the second.

Reilly Smith, who had just missed a chance seconds earlier (he also hit the post behind Price on his first shift of the game), made good on his second opportunity at 1:04, redirecting a Hamilton shot-pass through Price. Soderberg, en route to a 3-point game, picked up the other assist.

Plekanec immediately took another penalty, this time for getting his stick into Johnny Boychuk’s face as the Bruins defenseman stepped up to hit him as he exited Montreal territory. It only took the Bruins six seconds to cash in, and make it 3-0, on Jaromie Iginla’s fourth goal of this post-season.

Zdeno Chara, playing as a forward during the power play, kept a puck alive against two Canadiens defenders in the corner while Torey Krug crept down the boards to support him. Krug swept a no-look pass from the right corner to the weak-side circle, from where the uncovered Iginla swatted it past Price. The assist was Krug’s seventh in 10 games this post-season.

The B’s didn’t close the period as well as they probably wanted, succumbing to the Canadiens’ power play with 5:21 left (Brad Marchand was in the box for holding), then allowing a stretch-pass semi-breakaway to David Desharnais that was reminiscent of errors that plagued them in a 4-2 loss in Game 2.

They were tighter for most of the third period, though, rarely letting the Habs get into the up-tempo, transition game they prefer. The second goal of the night for the Fraser-Soderberg-Eriksson trio – this one from Eriksson, who scored on a bad Price rebound – re-established the Bruins’ three-goal lead. P.K. Subban’s power-play goal with 2:29 tightened things back up, but the B’s didn’t allow the Habs to threaten Rask much during a lengthy 6-on-5 manpower situation after that.